Final Fantasy: Crisis Core Last Stand
by 0oSYdNeyo0
Summary: He thought he would be fighting alone against the Shin-ra army, until she stood by his side. A stranger, willing to die by a strangers side. SPOILERS TO THE END OF CRISIS CORE! Zack/OC Reviews are very welcome and they mean a lot to me:)


"Boy oh boy, the price of freedom is steep." He broke the silence with a false laugh and shook his head.

Weapons lifted, cocked, readied.

"You can say that again." Her voice was unfamiliar, he turned his head to see her. Her eyes met his, Mako coursed through the wild blue oceans, SOLDIER. She was small in comparison to him, nearly a foot smaller, and thin. Short dark hair framed the tanned skin of her face, longer in the front hanging to her collar bones and shorter in the back. It was parted to the left and swept over leaving her forehead bare. He watched her walk to his side, she stopped and closed her eyes. Her soft features hardened, when her eyes opened oceans had turned to ice, and locked on the army standing in front of them.

He sighed and slowly moved his hand towards his Buster sword holstered on his back. Once in his hand he swung it out in front of him with the flat of the blade almost resting on his forehead. He closed his eyes and repeated the words his mentor, Angeal, once spoke to him. "Embrace your dreams and, whatever happens protect your honor," he opened his eyes and swung his sword to his dominate side, raised his voice and ran, "As SOLDIER!"

He went to the right she to the left, bullets pelted the ground as they moved with trained precision, taking out the most immediate threats, using their own weapons against them. Zack lifted a fallen rifle, using it in tandum with his sword, taking out soldier after soldier with terrifying efficiency.

Forty minutes later the batter ground was littered with bodies, beige sand was tainted and stained crimson. The evening sun had set, welcoming the heavy rolling thunderhead.

She winced as a bullet tore through her upper arm, at her back she felt Zack stumble against her- a bullet grazing her leg, going through his.

He hissed as a bullet lodged itself in his back under his shoulder blade. "Damn it." He swore as the woman fell against him, he blinked sweat out from his eyes. He waited for the woman to steady herself on her own feet before he, himself, straightened to his full height. He hefted the Buster sword up, "Not today." He ground out. "We won't die today." He stepped away from the woman, and walked towards the soldiers.

A bullet jerked his body back, then another. And another. And another.

So many tore at her flesh she lost count. "Not... today..." She heard him say as her vision began to swim. Without him at her back she struggled to stay upright. On the far reaches of her blurring vision she saw him sway. Lightning flashed across the sky and rain began to fall making her already wet dress uncomfortably cling to her sensitive open wounds.

_Six men... No, three. _Zack strained his blurry vision to count the men as he stumbled back taking another bullet. He was at her side when he saw her collapse. His heavy boot slid in the sand and his knees buckles. "No." he tried to force himself back up. He leaned heavily against the Buster sword, panting, wheezing, with blood trickling from between his lips.

"Fire!" The sting of bullets. He hit the ground next to her, he chanced a quick glance at her. Her eyes were closed but she was still breathing. The last thing he heard was the sound of one shot before darkness closed in on his world.

When he opened his sky blue eyes his breath caught in his chest. Beside him he could hear labored breathing. _Damn troops, couldn't just finish us off... _

"Z-Zack." He struggled, _Talking isn't easy.. _

She swallowed and tried to steady her breathing before she spoke.

"Emma."

He turned his head slowly to look at the stranger dying at his side. She was staring up into the grey clouds, the rain washing blood through her hair. Her blue eyes were glowing dimly in the darkness surrounding them.

He mimicked her swallow, breathe, speak pattern. "First class?"

"Y-Yeah..." She swallowed again, "You?" A grimace crossed her features.

"Yeah." He nodded still watching her.

She tried to move and her breath stuck somewhere in her bullet ridden chest, the look that crossed her face- he was sure was the same expression on his face. A tear rolled from the corner of her eye cleaning the blood from it's path.

"If... If.." She struggled to speak, her throat working convulsively. "If the morning..." A spasm, and a grimace. Once the pain passed she swallowed and continued. "Comes, I'll be thank... Thankful just to see.. the sun..." Her voice raised a pitch, and she turned her head towards Zack. "But the... Daylight seems so far away." She said quietly. _The color of the sky. _He watched as a smile grew on her lips, and her gaze drifted away from him. "Tell your friend to look in my pack." The glow in her eyes faded more with each word.

"Emma?" He all but whispered, she looked deep into his fading eyes. "Thank you." Her smile touched her eyes for a long moment before she looked again to the grey clouds.

"Goodnight, Zack." Blue eyes closed and her labored breathing stopped.

"Z-Zack." The weak blonde said as Zacks fading eyes looked to him. Zack tried to sit up, causing him to lose his breath, he stopped and closed his eyes. He looked to cloud again,"For the... Both of us..." He struggled to talk.

"Both of us?" Coud questioned.

"That's right... You're gonna..." _Why can't I just get through this sentence? _

"You're gonna?" Cloud questioned again. Zack summoned his dwindling strength to lift his free left hand and clasped the back of his friends head. He pulled it down to his tattered chest. "Live."

For a moment neither moved, silent except the sound of Zacks short breathing.

"You'll be..." Zack broke the silence, "my living legacy." His hand slipped from the back of Clouds head and fell into the puddle he was laying in. Cloud lifted his head, half his face covered in blood.

Zack looked at the Buster sword in his hand and again summoned his strength.

"My honor, my dreams."He drug the sword across the ground as he lifted the long handle towards Cloud. "Their yours now." Cloud slowly took the sword in his hands, Zack pushed the sword towards the other man.

The blonde glanced to the woman laying next to his friend. "Look in her pack." Zack said before he closed his eyes.

Cloud looked to Zack, "I'm your... Living legacy..." his breath caught in his throat- Zack, his best friend, was dead. Memories flooded his mind as he let out a scream of grief.

As the memories caught up with the present he moved to the woman and looked in her pack, as he was told.

_Phoenix down. _He tossed a feather over the woman and one over his friend. He finally stood and turned to walk away, he glanced over his shoulder to Zack. "Goodnight."

As the sun began to rise over the desert a phoenix rose from the blood stained sand, and two still hearts began to stir.


End file.
